Jul 23, 2017
Ban on pan masala likely to be lifted soon
Mumbai : The Foods and Drugs Administration (FDA), Maharashtra, is mulling on lifting the ban on the sale of flavoured or scented areca nut, more popular as ‘pan masala’.
On July 17, the FDA issued a circular stating that it is likely to lift the ban on such products. FDA Commissioner Dr. Pallavi Darade said hearing on the issue is still going on by a single-member committee which was formed last year and a decision on the ban will come within 25 days.
Maharashtra was the first state to ban ‘Gutka’ and ‘pan masala’ in July 2012. It was challenged by the ‘Gutka’ industry in Bombay High Court but did not get any relief. “This ban on pan masala was brought into force because of the special power given by the Food Safety Act to the food commissioner to ban a harmful substance for a maximum period of one year,” a senior officer of FDA said.
Doctors said it causes an epidemic proportion of fatal diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, and cancers. Mouth cancer is the commonest cancer in men due to the rampant ‘supari’ chewing habit.
“The World Health Organization report and several studies in India have proven that pan masala causes serious health hazards including mouth and throat cancer. Moreover, since the last five years, all research material are submitted to the FDA several times and if they lift the ban than the state will never become tobacco free,” said Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi of Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH).
As per Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2010, 27.6% of Maharashtra’s adult population was chewing tobacco (zarda, khaini, mava, kharra, masheri, gudakhu, paan, gutka or pan masala). In terms of numbers, nearly two crore people were using smokeless tobacco. Most consumers use smokeless tobacco along with supari (betel or areca nut).
On July 1, 2016, public health institutions had petitioned the CM to ban flavoured chewing ‘supari’ permanently and enforce the ban strictly. “We sincerely urge you to continue the ban on flavoured chewing tobacco and flavoured ‘supari’ (pan masala) permanently to save our future generation. Currently, the ban is applicable for only one year and it has to be renewed annually,” said Dr. Kailash Sharma, Director (Academics), TMH.
Several oncologists from different districts named Maharashtra Cancer Warriors, Deans of Dental College has also written to the Chief Minister, the FDA minister and the FDA commissioner for a permanent ban.
Ashok Dhoble, Secretary of Indian Dental Association, said, “The epidemic of mouth cancer cannot be curtailed without a comprehensive prohibition on selling of these lethal products freely as packaged mouth fresheners. We sincerely request to continue the ban.”
New FDA notification allowing sale of flavoured supari stuns medical fraternity
The FDA had imposed a ban on tobacco and related products — khaini, zarda, paan masala and flavoured tobacco — five years ago.
THE new notification of Maharashtra FDA, dated July 17, has shocked public health experts and the medical fraternity because it has permitted the sale of flavoured supari or areca nut, popularly known as pan masala. The notification states that while a one-member committee will decide on the ban of scented areca nut, the sale will be allowed.
“WHO and several studies in India have proved beyond doubt that pan masala causes serious health hazards, including mouth and throat cancer. All the research material has already been submitted to the FDA several times for the last five years. Our state is bound to become a laughing stock if the pan masala ban isn’t continued,” said Professor Pankaj Chaturvedi, Tata Memorial Hospital.
Incidentally, Maharashtra was the first state to ban gutkha and pan masala in July 2012. This was challenged by the gutkha industry in the Bombay High Court, but they didn’t get any relief from the court. The ban on pan masala was enforced because of the special power given by the Food Safety Act to the Food Commissioner, to ban a harmful substance for a period of maximum one year.
Encouraged by the success of the ban, successive FDA commissioners renewed the notification and extended the ban on flavoured supari (without tobacco). This ban was renewed with a new notification each year.
On July 1 last year, concerned individuals and institutions had petitioned Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, urging him to ban flavoured supari permanently and enforce the ban strictly. The group included the director of the Tata Memorial Hospital; 27 oncologists of the Maharashtra Cancer Warriors, dean of the Governmental Dental College; president of the Indian Medical Association; secretary of the Indian Dental Association; CPAA, Salaam Bombay Foundation and V Care.
Dr Kailash Sharma, director (academics), Tata Memorial Hospital, wrote in his letter “We sincerely urge you to continue the ban on flavoured chewing tobacco and flavored supari (pan masala) permanently to save our future generation. Currently, the ban is applicable for only one year and it has to be renewed annually.
Ashok Dhoble, secretary of the Indian Dental Association, said, “The epidemic of mouth cancer cannot be curtailed without a comprehensive prohibition of selling these lethal products freely as packaged mouth fresheners. We sincerely request that you will use your good offices to continue the ban on these smokeless tobacco and supari products to prevent premature deaths in our country.”
Several oncologists from different districts, under the aegis of the Maharashtra Cancer Warriors, as well as deans of dental colleges have also written to the Chief Minister and commissioner of FDA, seeking a permanent ban.
Y K Sapru of CPAA had written to the CM: “This is a request and an appeal not just from us, but from other NGOs like us who are involved in tobacco control, and also from thousands of families and patients who have gone through the agony of tobacco-related cancers, and from hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting youths whose lives are at stake.”
Tshering Bhutia of Salaam Bombay Foundation wrote: “In Maharashtra, the health of children and youth have been benefited by the ban on pan masala. We have been working in 15,000 zilla parishad schools and 220 schools in Mumbai. Please make it permanent.”
As per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2010, 27.6 per cent of Maharashtra’s adult population was chewing tobacco (jarda, khaini, mava, kharra, masheri, gudakhu, paan, gutkha, pan masala). In terms of absolute numbers, nearly 2 crore people were using smokeless tobacco. Most of the consumers use smokeless tobacco along with supari (betel nut or areca nut). This is causing epidemic proportion of fatal diseases such as heart attacks and strokes, apart from cancers.
Mouth cancer is the most common cancer among men in Maharashtra due to rampant supari chewing habit.
STATE REVOKES BAN ON PAN MASALA
According to the Global Adult tobacco survey 2010, 27.6 per cent of Maharashtra’s adult population chewed tobacco. PIC: AFP
Activists call notification ‘ shocking’; write to CM, FDA commissioner seeking its cancellation
Four years after the state imposed a ban on sale, purchase and storage of pan masala, thereby becoming the first in the country to do so, it has revoked the landmark decision. A notification issued by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on July 17 lifted the ban on sale of flavoured supari (without tobacco) in the state.
“Studies conducted by the WHO and others in India have proven beyond doubt that pan masala causes serious health hazards, including mouth and throat cancer. We have been submitting these research materials to the FDA for the last five years. The sudden decision to revoke the ban is frankly shocking,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck department, Tata Memorial Hospital.
Maharashtra was the first state in the country to ban chewable tobacco in July 2012. The following year, it extended the ban to pan masala. The ban, imposed by the FDA Commissioner using the special power vested on his office under the Food Standards and Safety Act, 2006, was effective for a period of one year and had to be renewed annually. While health activists had implored the state and chief ministers in office to make it a permanent ban, no such decision came about.
The decision has not gone down well with health activists and the medical fraternity. Several activists have written to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis warning of the perils of legalising pan masala. Dr Kailash Sharma, director (academics) at Tata Memorial Hospital, in his letter urged the CM to stick with the ban in order “to save future generations”.
A group of oncologists, under the banner of Maharashtra Cancer Warriors and deans of dental colleges, have also written to the CM, health minister and FDA commissioner, calling for a permanent ban on the products.
According to the Global Adult tobacco survey 2010, 27.6 per cent of Maharashtra’s adult population chewed tobacco. In absolute numbers, this figure stood at nearly two crore people. Most consumers use smokeless tobacco, along with supari (betel or areca nut). Mouth cancer is the most common cancer prevalent in men in the state.
What kind of Raids can a Restaurant or Eatery expect?
In this article, Jagriti Bharti of Amity Law School, Lucknow discusses the kinds of Raids a Restaurant or Eatery can expect.
With the globalisation of the whole country, India’s food trade system has also been globalised. It has initiated a transnational system for food production. India is passing through a strategic development phase when it comes to food and beverages. Indian food industry not only with its own home brands but also with the foreign brands is being taken to great heights of development. Indian food and beverage market are growing steadily having a fairly sophisticated market with enough restaurants in big cities of India like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai etc. Food franchise like KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Starbucks Coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts, Domino’s Pizza, Subway, Costa Coffee, Burger King is among some of the famous foreign food franchise who has tightened their position in Indian food industry through their outlets in various cities of the country.
Active and fast pace lifestyle of the people has given a path to the development of the restaurant and eateries across the country. Thought they fulfil the purpose of serving hungry Indians who are willing to pay them their price, there are lots of eateries and restaurants who are not up to the mark in sanitation, hygiene and food quality. Their compromise in quality and hygiene can have a disastrous effect on the health of the consumers of their food. Several laws are made for these restaurants and eateries for maintenance of hygiene level and food quality but least of them is followed leading the government to take a step forward towards securing the safety of the public. And this step is the “surprise checks” (also known as “raids”) and audits of the hotels, restaurants, eateries to check their level of hygiene and food quality and ensure their public health.
“Week long raids in the Secunderabad Cantonment has exposed the unpalatable underbelly of the restaurant industry operating in the city. The exercise has now prompted a sea change in the Cantonment hotels management policy. The sanitation wing of the Cantonment board seized 6 installations including a sweetshop and a bakery. Officials found that all the kitchens had employees living in them and the kitchen repleted with the toilet. The surprise check was conducted after receiving complaints and will be continued until the food outlets will comply with hygiene norms[1].”
Above stated incident was just an example of a “raid.” There are much more which have been either conducted or yet to be conducted wherever the restaurant staff and administration lay back from their duty. The safety and quality of the food served in the restaurants and eateries are governed under FSSAI (The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) Act. It operates under the Health ministry and is required to regulate and monitor the manufacture, processing, distribution, sale, and import of food as to ensure the safety of food. The FSSAI has become really active after the “Maggi issue”. They are conducting a lot of surprise audits and raids frequently in various hotels and restaurants to keep the restaurants and food businesses of their toes and deliver what is expected “quality”.
The provisions of FSSAI Act under which raids can be conducted of restaurants and eateries are:
Running Food Business Without License and Registration
As per Section 31 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, no person can commence or carry food business without a license. Whosoever carries food business without obtaining required licence will be liable to imprisonment for a term which may extend to 6 months and also a fine which may extend to five lakh rupees (Section 63).
Running food business (including restaurants and eateries) without a proper licence is illegal and this may attract raids from the food authority in order to find out whether the specific food business is legal or illegal. Restaurants will be required to show licence of their business whose inability to produce will attract the said punishment. [Getting FSSAI license for the restaurants].
NOTE: For a restaurant to sell liquor on its premises, it needs to get licensed from the State Excise Commissioner without which selling liquor is illegal. That restaurant can be raided and can even order for its closure.
Selling food, not of nature, substance or quality demanded
Raid can be conducted in any restaurant or eatery if they sell food to the purchaser which is,
Not in compliance with the provision of the FSSAI Act or,
Regulations made under this Act or,
Nature or substance or quality demanded by the purchaser’
And the concerned person will be liable to a penalty not exceeding five lakh rupees[2]. Noncompliance of this Section by any person who, if, covered under Section 31 (2) will be liable to a penalty not exceeding 25,000 rupees.
Case: This case is of Delhi’s eateries serving low-quality food. It was informed to the Delhi High Court by the FSSAI that various food samples collected from three different popular eateries in the capital have been found unsafe for consumption. They were:
KFC at Scindia House in Connaught Place: Sample collected was ‘Rizo Rice’ which contained artificial colour.
Sagar Ratna restaurant in Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar: Rice sample collected for testing was found to be unsafe.
Bikanerwala restaurant at ITL Tower in Netaji Subhash Place: Samples of fruit and vegetable chutney was found to be contaminated with artificial colours.
Selling food that contains external or inappropriate matter
Section 54 of the FSSAI Act states that any person who sells, stores, distributes or imports food which contains inappropriate or extraneous matter shall be liable to a penalty which may extend to one lakh rupees. Raids can be conducted by the concerned authority if complaint registered against any eateries or restaurant regarding this matter.
Case: There was a case of Mother Diary in which media agencies reported that he detergent and frozen fat was found by the Kolkata based Central Laboratory during re-tests of milk samples collected by the district Food and Drug Administration.
Keeping the kitchen dirty and unhygienic
Any restaurant owner who keeps the manufacturing area of food or process any article of food in an unhygienic or unsanitary condition will be liable to a penalty which may extend to one lakh rupees (Section 56) and this noncompliance of the owner can also raids to be conducted.
Case: The authorities warned Central Province Club of Nagpur of cancellation of their food licence due to faults like an extremely unhygienic kitchen, no pest control, unclean water tank etc. found during an inspection by the Food safety officer and which was not permissible under the FSSAI Act. [FSSAI guidelines to be followed by all the restaurants].
Accidents including consumer’s injury or death
According to Section 59, if any restaurant owner found guilty of selling any food item which caused either death or injury to the consumer then he will be liable a penalty of rupees five lakh in case of death and rupees 3 lakh in case of injury occurred to the consumer. If this has happened in any restaurant then the owner of the concerned restaurant may face the wrath of the food safety officials during raids.
There are also some other laws under which raids can be conducted in the restaurant and eateries
Income Tax Act, 1961
Section 14 of the Income Tax Act provides 5 heads of income i.e. Salaries, income from house property, profits and gains of business and profession, capital gains and income from other sources. If a person’s income falls in any of these heads, he will be liable to pay income tax as per the provisions of this Act. Owning and operating a restaurant, hotel, eatery or other food business is a kind of business and hence the restaurant owner has to pay the income tax on the income he has earned in the previous year from his business under the head “Profits and gains from business and profession” evading which will make him liable to face penal consequences.
Despite the laws made under the Act, people tend to evade payment of tax by not disclosing their income and assets. But the government had a smart solution to this. It launched “Income Declaration Scheme” in 2016 in order to combat the problem of tax evasion. Under this scheme every person has to declare their income and wealth to the government till 30 September 2016 failing which he will face search and seizures from the Income Tax officials.
Case: The Income Tax department has left no stone unturned in a bid to make “IDS” a success. It conducted around 100 raids in eateries in Ahmedabad, New Delhi and Kolkata. In Mumbai alone, around 50 restaurants and eateries were raided and were asked to declare their income under Income Declaration Scheme. Small businesses and roadside eateries also had to face raids from the IT officers.[3]
CONCLUSION
Owning a business like a restaurant or an eatery needs a bundle of licences from different Acts of State as well as Central and has to abide by the provisions and rules mentioned therein, violation or noncompliance of which can really trouble their business through penalties and raids conducted by the food authorities who can even pass an order of its closure. So, before starting a food business, one needs to be very alert and careful about the laws related to it.
Food safety officers conduct surprise checks of Sonawari markets
SUMBAL: To check the quality of foods, milk and juices being prepared, sold and served under unhygienic conditions, a team of food officers conducted a special drive in Sonawari area of Bandipora district.
A team of food safety officers led bu Yameen Ul Nabi, designated officer food safety drug & control organisation Bandipora on Saturday conducted surprise checks of various food business holders, milk shops at Sumbal, Sonawari areas; Shelvat, Wagipora and Sumbal.
The team inspected several establishments and lifted several samples of milk. Food items like milk, juice oil were tested on the spot in food safety organisation’s mobile van.
The food safety authorities have impressed upon the food business operators to strictly adhere to the provisions laid under FSSA (Food Safety and Standards Authority) and maintain high standards of health and hygiene to guarantee safe food to end users. The officers said such drives would continue in future as well.
Admin orders raids against shops to check sale of adulterated sweets
With festive season round the corner, the district administration has put the sale of adulterated sweets from shops under scanner across city. The coloured sweets sold in open market in the city contain harmful chemicals that will affect one’s health.
Deputy Commissioner Amit Kumar on Friday convened a meeting of senior officials of various department along with SSP Anoop T Mathew and ordered raids against such shops selling adulterated sweets. Kumar ordered samples of sweets to be collected from shops and putting the products under test.
Use of harmful synthetic colours, including dyes is not permitted. But small manufacturers use the banned items just to give more colour to the sweets so as to make it attractive, officials said.
Actions against such sweet manufacturer, after lab report would be initiated as per Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 (revised in 2012). Under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 (revised in 2012), sale of adulterated products that are detrimental to health can invite a hefty fine of anything between Rs 25,000 and Rs 2 lakh.
Moreover, rampant use of intoxicating drugs and narcotic substance by people, especially the youngsters has led the administration to initiate step to curb the menace in the city.
"Following the complaints, we have decided to carry out random raids at the medical stores, especially the ones operating in the places like Mango, Parsudih, Jugsalai and other fringe area. We have opted for a random checking because the complainants had not mentioned about any specific shops where these intoxicating medicines are being sold without prescription," said an official.
During the meeting strategy was also prepared to tighten noose of those selling and manufacturing country-made illicit liquor. Administration has also ordered action. As part of the initiative joint surprise raids would be carried out at liquor selling points in the evening while production points will see raids in the morning.
“Illicit liquor is a hugely profitable industry where bootleggers pay no taxes and sell enormous quantities of their product. There is a need to restrict extensive abuse of the intoxicant in order to reduce untoward incidents in the society. Moreover, most of the hotels are not adhering to the rules while serving foreign liquor in lavish parties. Continuous raids must be carried against illegal distilleries especially in view of the forthcoming festive season later this year,” noted an official.
Gutkha sellers will be ostracised: Collector
‘Action being initiated against one’
District Collector B. Lakshmikantham on Saturday warned that gutkha-sellers would be ostracised from the district.
Addressing a meeting to review action initiated by the Vigilance and Monitoring wings against those found resorting to sale of gutkha in the last one week, Mr. Lakshmikantham said that such law-violators would be ostracised from the district.
The Collector said one Gelli Kishore, a native of Machilipatnam, who was caught selling gutkha on four different occasions despite repeated warnings, was being ostracised from the district.
Raids on his house had yielded gutkha stocks worth ₹25.46 lakh.
He directed the officials to book criminal cases and levy heavy fine on those found selling food items for excess price.
Officials of the drug control department should inspect medical stores at regular intervals.
Inspection of FP shop
He said the official inspecting the Public Distribution System point in Tiruvuru last week to assess the available stocks had found 1,550 kg less rice and 56 kg less sugar. In the stocks allocated under the Ramzan Tohfa scheme, 17 kg excess sugar, 15 kg excess wheat flour, 11 kg excess semolina and 800 ml less ghee was detected. The officials had also seized 28 LPG cylinders. The food safety wing officials visited the Anganwadi centres at Challapalli and Avanigadda, collected food samples and sent them for analysis.
Officials of the drug control wing raided 71 shops in Vidyadharapuram, Ramarajyanagar, Eluru Road and Patamata in Vijayawada besides Guntupalli, Paritala, Pedana, Gampalagudem and a few other places and issued suspension orders to the owners for violation of norms.
13 oil companies raided in Warangal
The city police raided 13 oil companies in the city and collected samples from companies which were selling adulterated product.
City Police Commissioner G. Sudheer Babu along with food safety officials made a surprise visit to the Garg Agrotech oil company in Rampur of Madikonda mandal late on Friday night.
The police found that the packaging of oil was being carried out in unhygienic conditions. Samples of local oil companies like Ruchi, Mamatha were collected.
Mr. Sudheer Babu said that as per the instructions of Director General of Police Anurag Sharma, they were acting against adulteration of all kinds of food items. “We have taken samples from Garg Agrotech oil company and sent them for forensic test to Nacharam Food Safety Laboratory in Hyderabad. We will take action as soon as we get the report,” he said.
Central Zone DCP Venugopal Rao, ACPs Janardhan, Muralidhar, inspectors Sridhar, Srilakshmi, Ramesh Kumar, Kishan and food safety officer Rajendra Prasad took part in the raids.
2 Delhi-Goa trains flunk food, water and hygiene test
Panaji: Two premium trains catering to Goa have fared poorly on multiple parameters of food hygiene in the latest report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
The audit report on catering services in Indian Railways, recently tabled in Parliament, had revealed an overall poor performance by catering services. In its sample of 80 trains from all the divisions of the railways, the Hazrat Nizamuddin-Madgaon Rajdhani Express and the Nizamuddin-Goa Express were taken to task by the auditing body.
"Cleanliness and hygiene were not being maintained at catering units at stations and in trains. Deficiencies in respect of quality of food served were noticed. Articles unsuitable for human consumption, contaminated foodstuff, recycled foodstuff, shelf life expired packaged and bottled items, unauthorized brands of water bottles, etc., were offered for sale on stations," the CAG summarized in its report .
During the inspection by audit teams and railway officials, caterers on both the Goa Express and Madgaon Rajdhani were found using unfiltered tap water in preparing food items.
"Instead of available water purifiers, unpurified water straight from the tap was used in preparation of beverages - coffee, tea and soups in the trains," the teams noted, adding that catering persons were also not wearing handgloves while handling food items in these trains.
Despite strict rules on cooking in pantry cars after a spate of fire incidents, the Goa Express was among the 18 trains flouting them.
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